Show Notes
China and the United States are entering a fundamentally different phase of their relationship. In this episode of the Silk and Steel Podcast, Carl Zha speaks with Dr. Warwick Powell about the recent Xi-Trump summit and what it reveals about the changing global balance of power. While headlines focused on the pageantry of the summit, Powell argues that the most important developments were the quieter ones: renewed diplomatic channels, trade and investment dialogue, AI communication mechanisms, panda diplomacy, and Xi’s invitation for another 100,000 young Americans to visit China. The discussion explores whether Beijing is pursuing a long-term strategy to manage the transition from American unipolarity toward a multipolar world without allowing that transition to become violent. In this episode: 🇨🇳 Xi-Trump summit: What happened beneath the headlines? 🐼 Panda diplomacy: Why the return of pandas may carry a larger symbolic meaning 🌎 The end of unipolarity: Is America transitioning from hegemon to one great power among several? 🇺🇸 Trump’s China strategy: What does Washington actually gain from engaging Beijing? 💰 Trade & tariffs: Why tariffs alone cannot solve America's deeper economic problems 🏭 Chinese investment: Could Chinese companies eventually build factories in America? 🤖 AI competition: Why China and the US need mechanisms for communication despite enormous differences ⚠️ AI risks: Who is responsible when AI systems cause harm? 🇹🇼 Taiwan: Why Xi continues to emphasize Taiwan as a core issue in US-China relations 🌏 BRICS, SCO & the Global South: China’s parallel strategy of reforming existing institutions while developing alternatives 🕊️ Avoiding conflict: Why Beijing may prefer to manage America's decline rather than accelerate confrontation 🔄 The next two years: What could happen as Trump seeks major foreign-policy achievements and China navigates an increasingly multipolar world? Is the real story of the Xi-Trump summit not a grand bargain—but the gradual construction of a new floor beneath the US-China relationship? Watch the full discussion with Carl Zha and Dr. Warwick Powell. ► Join UK Column Live every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1pm UK time or watch previous live recordings here ► [UK Column Website] Explore all our written and video content on the official UK Column website ► [Support UK Column] Please donate to support our independent journalism & investigative journalism ► [UK Column YouTube] Please subscribe to the UK Column News YouTube channel for more alternative news and independent news Follow #UKColumn on: ► X ► Telegram ► Facebook ► Instagram
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Mike Robinson, Patrick Henningsen, and Basil Valentine present today's UK Column News.
Professor Norman Fenton speaks with Professor Diane Rasmussen about his new book, The Capture of Academia: How Universities Shape Power, Silence Dissent, and Influence Society. Sharing common ground as former senior academics who lost their university careers for opposing popular stances, they speak about the hidden corruption that drives today’s British universities. Professor Fenton is Emeritus Professor of Risk at Queen Mary University of London and founder of Agenda Ltd, a company that specialises in Bayesian network tools for risk modelling and decision support. He has previously been interviewed on UK Column to discuss skewed Covid vaccine data (2022) and, later, to explain how questioning the official Covid narrative effectively ended his academic career (2023). In this 2026 interview, Professor Fenton says he went “from respected professor to academic pariah” for his unpopular views. He speaks about the requirement for university staff to follow the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) cultural Marxist agenda that pervades today’s UK university system. One example can be found in the University of Cambridge’s Behavioural Attributes Framework, which requires all staff to adhere to “the principles of diversity and inclusion”. He believes this mandate helps explain why Jason Arday received his professorial appointment at Cambridge. Professor Fenton explains how these DEI mandates provide preferential treatment to groups with certain characteristics while it excludes others, and how they deny diversity of thought. He also discusses the Research Excellence Framework (REF), a bureaucratic, expensive, and corrupt process that claims to assess “the quality of research in UK higher education institutions”. In the next REF exercise (2029), 30% of “research quality” will be evaluated based on the incorporation of DEI principles into the research. This corruption extends into scientific peer review; only grant proposals and papers that support agendas such as Net Zero and Agenda 2030 tend to be reviewed favourably. Professor Fenton can be found on X, on YouTube, and via his website. He runs a popular Substack, ‘Where Are the Numbers?’, with Professor Martin Neil. Professors Fenton and Neil also co-authored the groundbreaking book Fighting Goliath: Exposing the Flawed Science and Statistics behind the COVID-19 Event.
Mike Robinson, Vanessa Beeley, Charles Malet and Dr Liz Evans present today’s UK Column News ► Join UK Column Live every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1pm UK time or watch previous live recordings here ► [UK Column Website] Explore all our written and video content on the official UK Column website ► [Support UK Column] Please donate to support our independent journalism & investigative journalism ► [UK Column YouTube] Please subscribe to the UK Column News YouTube channel for more alternative news and independent news Follow #UKColumn on: ► X ► Telegram ► Facebook ► Instagram
In this episode, Brian Gerrish and Charles Malet take up where they left off in Episode 10; with consideration of the question ‘What is this war designed to do?’ This means dealing with the changing nature of warfare and, in particular, the corporate influence exerting itself at every stage. Alongside this, there is commentary on the way in which Russia and its inhabitants have been dehumanised by Western governments and their tame media. As the discussion progresses, the subject of Britain’s ‘warfighting readiness’ comes up. Are the hollowed-out armed forces of the country in any position to be entering into a kinetic conflict with anyone, let alone the battle-hardened Russians? Or, is ‘support’ for Ukraine designed to do something else altogether?
Brian Gerrish, Mike Robinson, and Charles Malet present today's UK Column News. ► Join UK Column Live every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1pm UK time or watch previous live recordings here ► [UK Column Website] Explore all our written and video content on the official UK Column website ► [Support UK Column] Please donate to support our independent journalism & investigative journalism ► [UK Column YouTube] Please subscribe to the UK Column News YouTube channel for more alternative news and independent news Follow #UKColumn on: ► X ► Telegram ► Facebook ► Instagram